


how dare you speak to me of distance

by skarlatha



Series: Conversations in Verse [5]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Angst, Daryl is Bitter, Jealousy, M/M, Poetry, You're Up MAE
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-10
Updated: 2016-03-10
Packaged: 2018-05-25 22:27:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6212593
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/skarlatha/pseuds/skarlatha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Daryl calls Rick out on his bullshit rhetoric about the space between them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	how dare you speak to me of distance

**Author's Note:**

> This just in: MAElatha are terrible people and Daryl is sad and angry. Smad.

let me say this, let me go deeper,  
let me explain the difference between intent and action, between  
the way you think you love and the truth

there is no distance between merle and me  
his blood is my blood, his past is my past, his life  
was once my life and now i am all that is left of him  
and he loved me, he did  
_(maybe not as you once loved me but more than this, more_  
 _than the sound of a latch as you go to her at night,_  
 _and there’s distance there too, from her door to my bed,_  
 _the bed you can’t find because you don’t know I’ve left, don’t_  
 _even realize that the couch never smells like pine anymore_  
 _because my head now rests far from you, but we are talking of merle)_  
and he was all i ever knew of love, of peace, of   
having a home to return to  
and isn’t that fucking pathetic, that  
both men who have loved me have called me brother

you talk of diamonds but they are more than pressure  
more than the lack of distance between atoms, because  
if we all crystallized from proximity then we would all be diamonds  
me and you  
me and Sasha  
me and Judith  
you and Morgan  
every combination of the family shining like gems in the sunlight  
but we’re not

because what makes diamonds is pressure and _fire_ , and we had that once  
you and i

but let me explain  
let me be as clear as the crystal you think we are  
we are not together  
this is not love

you may love me, you may burn for me and with me  
it may consume everything within you, crush the time  
and the space and fuse us into one  
but brother, there is distance  
every atom of you and every atom of me  
separated by miles of fear, of pride  
of whatever bullshit you’ve told yourself is true

because there is no difference   
between the appearance of space and the reality of it  
between apathy and avoidance  
between prayer and inaction

but forgive me

i should not have asked you why

my first mistake, assuming that you   
have truth between your lips, that your tongue  
can do anything besides flay me alive  
leave me broken on the porch outside the house  
that used to be ours, used to be the family’s  
and is now just yours


End file.
